Council approves amendment to planning permit

A planning application to amend a planning permit for proposed mineral extraction in Dunolly has been approved by the Central Goldfields Shire, despite three objections being received.

At last month’s ordinary council meeting, administrators moved a motion to grant an amendment to planning permit D056/15 for 63 Pain Killer Road, Dunolly, for the use and development of the land for mineral extraction in accordance with endorsed plans, subject to 23 conditions.

Conditions include that no vegetation is to be removed for the use and development to occur, all works must be undertaken in a manner which minimises soil erosion, noise levels must comply with EPA standards and that the approved site must be rehabilitated on completion of the removal of the mineral.

The report tabled to council states a planning permit was issued on July 3, 2015 to allow for the area to be mined for mineral under the code of practice for low risk mines.

A prospecting licence was issued in 2015 by Earth Resources that allowed the operator to remove minerals and subsequently, the proponent currently operates a “doze and detect” alluvial gold mine located on the site.

The current application is for an amendment to allow the land area to be mined to increase beyond the five-hectare limit imposed under the original planning permit

For more on this story see Page 5 of The Advertiser, Tuesday, September 10